Picture Update

Annie is almost 5 weeks and for the most part it has been a dream. God has answered so many prayers with this little one. In fact, last night she only woke up one time to eat! Judah has been an amazing big brother, super nurturing and helpful. It seems like Annie has always been a part of the family. Joey's back to work and we are figuring it out without him. . The biggest answer to prayer has definitely been my sanity this time around. I only had about 3 days where I couldn't stop crying and since then I've been pretty stable. For those of you who don't remember, I was practically insane for 6 weeks after I had Judah. Every day gives me more and more confidence that we can not only survive, but actually enjoy our days together. Blessings to all, and thanks for all your prayers and support for our family.

Christmas Video, inc Annie footage

Annaleigh Marie Hill

We are at home with our lovely daughter, Annie. After spending just over 24 hrs. in the NICU she has made a full recovery and we were able to take her home as soon as I was discharged. She is such a little love, we are smitten. It's crazy how much she sleeps, but I guess I'm just making up for how little Judah slept at this age. Judah is doing amazingly well with her. He is so excited to have her around and so far we haven't had any huge meltdowns. He even decided to sleep in his big boy bed last night for the first time and slept through the night, wow!

Here is a play-by-play of Annie's birth for any of you who love the nitty gritty...

Well, we made it. Our daughter Annaleigh (Annie) was born on Thursday, December 11, 2008. She was 9lbs. 2oz. and 20.5 inches long. BIG girl! I had a successful VBAC and feel so amazing about it. After our last birth class on Monday my labor started to pick up and I was unable to sleep at all. Contractions continued through Tues. but they remained at about 5 minutes apart and the intensity didn't pick up until later in the evening. I had a regular appointment with Dr. Yin on Tues. morning and she said I was 1.5 cm, 90% effaced. She stripped my membranes and was hopeful that I would deliver the next day.
I think that I was a little unique in that I didn't feel comfortable at home for very long, maybe it was because I was a little scared being a VBAC. I decided to go to the hospital around 1:30am . When we got to the hospital, the nurse checked me and said I was 2cm, 90%. It was such a blessing, my admitting nurse was a new friend of mine from church and I really needed that kind of care, she even stopped and prayed for me as it was determined that I wasn't in labor yet... after 2 nights of no sleep... yikes. So Haupt gave me an Ambien and let me stay so that Dr. Yin could take over in the morning. I got about 3 hrs. of sleep and when Yin got there I had dilated another cm. We had previously talked about an epidural due to the exhaustion factor. So she told me I could have that at any time, but I really wanted to wait as long as possible.
I labored 8 more hrs. and was checked by a nurse and was told I was 2cm again. You can Imagine I broke down at that point. Dr. Yin's had overestimated when she checked me the last time. She was so optimistic the whole time and when she came back in about an hour she checked me and broke my water, which had light meconium. After that labor was really difficult, the contractions picked up immediately in length and intensity. I was having back labor as well. I lasted about 2 hrs. before I decided to get an epidural. I'm sure you remember my anxiety about having another spinal so the nurse gave me a low dose of Staidol before the epidural. Dr. Hack was amazing, I told him I was really afraid of the procedure and he did a great job calming my nerves. After that I was able to rest for a few hours while they started me on Pitocin. I got the epidural at 6:00 and by 11:15 I was ready to push. I was amazed! I didn't feel a thing until I was fully dilated.
Pushing was crazy, her head was already super low, so she moved down to near crowning fairly quickly. But there she remained for almost an hour, which is when I really started to feel things. It hurt bad, but it was great to know where to push. I almost gave up and Dr. Yin was very close to giving me an epesiotomy and finally Annie's head popped out. I tore pretty bad, so that has been fun.
Annie came out with the cord wrapped around her neck and had some complications due to that. They told us that it caused
hypovolemia and acid build up in her blood. So round 2 in the NICU for us. She also got a little meconium down past her vocal cords so they really wanted to monitor her and keep her on oxygen. She recovered so quickly it was really miraculous to us. It was emotionally taxing to again not have that initial bonding time with her, but knowing the NICU drill made it less stressful. She was able to room in with me on Friday and we brought her home on Saturday.
It was an amazing experience in spite of having a really long labor and a little scare when she came out. I was shocked that I never thought about having a c-section or wanting one at all. Having Dr. Yin there the whole time made me feel so safe and I was able to trust her completely even when her plan was not what I had expected. I loved delivering my girl! I was so worth it.

Thanks to all who prayed for us. We felt so blessed by all the calls and emails. Knowing that the Lord hears our prayers is a comfort in times of joy and times of fear. We are so blessed by a community who surrounds us with prayer and encouragement in the Lord. We hope to see many of you in the next weeks to come.

False Labor?

Okay, a little confused here. Night before last I was up for 3 hours with some intense cramping, contractions and light bleeding. I was able to go back to sleep for a few hours and everything slowed down. I was really crampy all day yesterday and had some really painful contractions last night. They stopped again and I went to sleep and had nothing last night. Today I feel way better than I did last night, so I'm a bit bummed. I thought it was the real deal. I guess it still could kick in anytime but now I feel like I'm on pins and needles. Maybe Annie is just waiting for her due date, December 9 would be a lovely birthday. In the meantime I'm just trying to stay on top of the house, get some Christmas shopping done and spend quality time with my boys. We'll keep y'all updated. Pray that I would have peace about God's timing in this delivery and be patient to meet our daughter.

37 weeks in Frisco

Joey swept me away last weekend for our last official babyless vacation for what I can imagine will be a long time. We had such a blast. I wanted to do the touristy thing this time since we usually just stick close Union Square for some marathon shopping. We took the trolley to Fisherman's Warf and ate at the world famous Scoma's restaurant, which was delicious. We did a bit of shopping, but I'm not really in the condition to be making any purchases since hopefully very soon my body will change drastically (hopefully). I did manage to find some sunglasses and a pair of shoes. 2 pregnancies down and my feet are a full size bigger than they used to be. Ouch!

Judah stayed at home with his grandparents and had a blast. I don't think he missed us at all. Since he's talking so much, he's been telling us all of Gigi and Papa's secrets. He got a Madagascar giraffe at McDonald's and he was telling me all about the movie, which to my knowledge he's never seen. He also told me 'surf's up' the other day then said 'watch it'... hmmm, I wonder it he watched that one too. I just love to tease Joey's parents about it, but it is slightly strange and new to me that Judah is beginning to have a little bit of a life independent of Joey and I. I guess that's growing up for you.

The pregnancy is going really well. I still feel ridiculously good, but my doctor assures me that the baby has dropped and things are progressing, I'll spare you the details. She'll let me go up to a week overdue and if things haven't progressed much more I'll have to have another c-section. Otherwise she might be able to break my water and see how things go. We are busy getting bags packed and things in order. I can't believe how much peace I have though. At this point with Judah I was so anxious to get the baby out that it consumed me. Just going through his traumatic birth gave me eyes to definitely trust God's timing an methods. We can't wait to meet our baby girl, but are so happy to enjoy these last few weeks with Judah, trying to pour into him and soak him up as much as possible.

Hill Happenings

I thought it was time for a long overdue update to all our fans out there. We've been busy getting ready for the baby and keeping up with the one we have at home. I have been in nesting overdrive for the past 2 months, so I've been consumed with projects and cleaning and whatnot. In the midst of that we've had a really enjoyable fall, if you can really call this fall. I still sweat most of the time for no apparent reason, luckily I have an excuse. The weather and the leaves are turning slowly, marking the quickly approaching arrival of our daughter.

We have decided on a name for our girl... Annaleigh Marie. I wrote a post a while back on her namesake, Leigh, if you are interested in that story and Marie is a Hill family name. We have been calling her Annie, except for Judah who calls her baby Nanny. He is really starting to get excited for her to 'come out.' He commands her to come out every day, but I have to explain to him that she's not quite ready yet. He already has a list of things that he wants her to do with him, including riding in the back of the jeep at the park. Mommy's too big to fit back there but he figures Annie will be small enough to take for a spin.

Some of Judah's favorite things right now...

- PARK
- his new big boy bed with NEMO sheets (although he won't sleep in it, he loves to play there)
- anything NEMO
- books
- dancing to Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions, preferably Froggie Went Courting and 'Flute Song'
- playing his guitar bat, or guitar fork, or guitar tennis racket, or guitar anything, even air guitar
- surfing with daddy
- closing doors (this one is borderline OCD, he can't focus on anything until he's sure for the 5th time that every door in the room is closed)
- oh, yeah, huge victory in Sunday School and Bible study, after 1 year of major separation anxiety he's finally staying in class!!
- repeating EVERYTHING you say, I've been totally busted a couple of times... yikes
- soccer

There's so much more I'm sure. This kid is passionate about everything he does. We are really enjoying this season with him and cherishing these last few weeks with just the three of us.

Here are the latest pictures... Halloween, my nursery project, my lovely baby shower, and of course random Judah pics

progress

This afternoon I took the family to the beach. I threw a surfboard in the car just in case, which made Judah really excited. So when we got there he wanted to go to the water, and he wanted me to bring the surfboard. The 56 degree water didn't bother him at all.

Here is a sitting reverse paddle out one-hander.


Here is Judah flopping backward on his first wave (the pic doesn't show him recover from this, but he did!).


Here is a video of his 2nd wave. He loved it.